Hello 321, Congratulations, Hope you see 60 or more in the business. I learned a lot about sprinklers back in the 80s when I was doing alarms and Somebody had to know how both parts worked to get a lot of false alarms solved, Rather than point a finger. I just started full time with a sprinkler company 10 years ago. Yes I use a program to do some designs on, I just finished a hand layout 2 weeks ago. Your are the kind of guy I hope I can be when I have been in the business 40 years.
Saturday, July 20, 2013, 9:04:48 AM, you wrote: > This past Tuesday, July 16th, marks the 40th anniversary of my > employment in the Fire Sprinkler Business. > On that first day, July 16th, 1973, I walked into "Automatic" > Sprinkler's Birmingham, Al office and sat on the stool in front of a > drawing board with a parallel bar. My new boss, Melvin Smith, came > over and shook my hand and said "Welcome to the Fire Sprinkler > business...let's get you started." I looked around at the other > drawing boards in the office and the plans that they were working on > and thought to my self "Look at all the detail on those > plans...wonder what all of that is?". It wasn't long before I found out. > I look back on the changes that we have seen in the last 40 years > in this business. Welded Cross Mains and Grooved Fittings, Thin Wall > Pipe, Mechanical Tees, Grid Systems, Computer Hydraulics, (remember > Alan Johnson's first Wang set up in the '70's), Horizontal Sidewall > Heads, CPVC Pipe, Residential Heads and Systems, CAD, ESFR and High > Challenge Heads, and on and on...I tell the younger guys that work > for me that when I first started we had 3: different sprinklers: > Upright, Pendent and Sidewall. Now I think there are in excess of > 250 different heads listed on Reliable and Tyco's head charts. > Some times I get told that I am an "Antique" and my methods aren't > applicable to today's world...but it all still works. I tell my > salesmen...give me a preliminary, you have to know what you sold > because if you don't it only gets worse from your desk to the field. > I tell my designers...Put tie down dimensions on EVERYTHING...they > argue that "but boss...it's CAD...it doesn't matter. I send them out > to work a week in the field laying out the garbage they drew and > that usually cures the dimension issue. I tell every one in the > building..."It's all about the POJ (Pipe on Job) date...that's the > schedule nucleus...be the first trade in" The same principals apply today > that applied 40 years ago. > I learned from At Bateman to write the proposal before preparing > the estimate. I thought he was crazy but it makes perfect sense. I > learned from Chuck Hura that if you have backlog you can manage it > to become profitable...but with no backlog...you can't even cover your fixed > cost. > Today...we face new challenges that we never dreamed of 40 years > ago. Microbial Induced Corrosion and spontaneous failure of CPVC > Pipe and Fittings. An economy that has been on it's back struggling > for the past 6~7 years with business failures that would have seemed > impossible a generation ago. > Yet with all of the challenges, the Fire Sprinkler Industry has > become a serious force in the world. Forty years ago we were only > involved in a job if an insurance company mandated it...now we are > in every building code that there is. > Looking back on this I reflect and ponder my future and how much > longer I will stay with this. My wife asked me "Well you've put 40 > years into it...what know?" I replied well...I've had a good run for > the past 40 years...I guess I'll stick with this "Sprinkler > Gig"..it's been good to me so far!! > > John W. Farabee > Vice President > Bass United Fire and Security > Pompano Beach, Fl > 561-707-5150 > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org -- Best regards, Charles mailto:[email protected] _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
